Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have successfully demonstrated that autonomous methods can discover new materials. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technique led to the discovery of three new nanostructures, including a first-of-its-kind nanoscale "ladder." The research was published today in Science Advances..

The newly discovered structures were formed by a process called , in which a material's molecules organize themselves into unique patterns. Scientists at Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) are experts at directing the self-assembly process, creating templates for materials to form desirable arrangements for applications in microelectronics, catalysis, and more. Their discovery of the nanoscale ladder and other new structures further widens the scope of self-assembly's applications.

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